Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-01-01
PULPIT THOUGHTS.
EXTRACTS FROM SERMONS OF
METROPOLITAN MINISTER'S.
The Value OF Humilty-Womans
sphere in the Church--Thc Sa-
viopr Present With His Peo-
ple-Paurs Greeting.

Church compels the omission of his sermon
this week. In lieu thereof we give extracts
from sermons of prominent metropolitan
ministers
The Value OF Humility.
The Tabernacle pulpit was occupied by
Or. Doolittle, who has been for the last
twenty years professor of logic and meta
physics in Rutgers College, New Brunswick,
\, J. The preacher read for his text
Mark TX, $S:-"If any man desire
to be first the same must be willing
to be the last of all, aud the servant of all.
After some preliminary remarks explanato-
~ of the apparent contradiction involved in
the text, and showing it to be Characters
tic specimen Of the teaching OF the Master,
DR.. Doolittle projected to analyse the char
acter set forth in the passage of Scripture,
and to indicate its constituent elements In
the first place such character implied hui
milty-such humility as involved a con-
sciousness Of duty to God and to our fellow
men, a consciousness of imrerfectiors and a
tendency toward a lofty ideal
Such a character as that described by the
Great Teacher in the text implied, secondly,
self-mastery. To be such as Christ charac-
teriEed q man must have complete command
OF himself. a man might have many of the
elements of greatness, but without self-com-
maud he was really weak, Caesar, Cicero,
Napoleon were poor specimens of humanity
of his exile and humiliation what imbecili-
ties came from the pen and from tho LIPS of
him who could by his words OF fire or of soft
persuasion sway at will the Senate aud peo-
pie of Rome, And what a pitiful object of
spiteful imbeciity was Napoleon at St He
lena,
Such character, thirdly, must be pos
scSSed of and by love. In love, as in our ever
present atmosphere, he must live and move
aud have his being. Without love-love to
tod and love 10 man-there could be no such
thing as true moral greatness. Never was
the fallen Napoleon so worthy of himself as
when he said: Alexander, Cesar and my
selt-we founded empires and built up great
states, we founded them aud reared them by
force. Christ founied aud built His empire
by love His empire will endure when all
Others have passed away"
Woman's Sphere in the Church.
At All Souls Protestant Episcopal Church
the Rev. r. Heber Newton preached the first
OF an Advent course of sermons on Woman
in the Church, the Family, Society and the
State" He said in part: Victor Hugo
said Man has been the problem of the
eighteenth century, Woman is the prob
lem of the nineteenth century. The woman,s
movement is the endeavor TO win equal
ity before the bondage of custom, ac-
cess to the opportunities of salf-support,
intellectual education, the just right of
troduce woman to power never known be-
fore. As runs an ancient mystic saying:
The reign OF man is at hand The ira
ditional an-thought of woman has been
thoroughly superficial. No wonder then that
Rousseau should say: The reign of woman
Is the degradation of man. The deeper
thought has found in womanhood secret
dlvlner than that bodied in manhood. The
creatlon of woman is not complete, but il
shall be complete in the time which is at
hand.
LIFETIME then speak to you in this Adven.
tide, when we are thinking of how the old
order changes yielding place to new, of the
dangers involved in the growing influences
Of woman in the Church, the family, society
and the State, and of the benefits that may
be expected to issue from this growing infiu-
ence Woman. thus far representing excess.
lively the emotional nature, has tended to
make worship the expression of sentiment
not sufficiently vltnhsed by thought, which
has degencrate3 into sentimentality. Our
hymns show this influence. There are plenty
81 hymns adapted to the eiieminate feeling OF
Safe IN the Arms of Jesus but how few
are pitched to the lofty aspiration of
Samuel JohnSons Life of Ages Richly
Poured The tender language of the heart
finds ample utterance, but the valiant desires
Of the mind find scant voice in our hymnal
True 1stheticism in worship gives us brio
a-hrac religion, wherein colors and tunes are
Of more Importance than the weightier mat.
tiers Of the law, IL the growth of womau's
influence were to heightcn the effeminacy of
worship, we might well deplore the coming
Of the day Of woman. But the growth Of
woman herself, and when the woman whom
God is creating stands forth in developed
mind, she will lift our worship 10 a nob.cr
key:
I'm the infancy Of the raee man needs the
papa or Pope To guido him in the way of
Ns,-s. II. f-l.1
larger growth who still need father But
surely we ought all to have learned by this
time to walk ourselves Man, having first
won freedom and acknowledgment hns first
learned this lesson, while woman still too
commonly leans upon the arm of the spirit
ual nurse. Women are still found on their
knees before an eternal authority, facing
outward for the light Of duty. They keep
nllve the priest and crowd the confessional
which men have deserted.
cit IS not reproach TO woman thatitis so,
seeing the influences which have been at
work these ages upon her. The danger OF
this influence OF woman in the church Is OBJ
vlous. tits the danger which our own church
Is 50 sensihly experiencing. the proiongation
of this lower stage Of spiritual culture be-
You'd the time Providence has set for it in the
curriculum Of spiritual education.
Woman herself suffers in this survival of
an outrageous system. She misses her free
dom in Christ Jesus Men are alienated from
the churches which represent TO them a
childish type of character-culture. The
clergy are endangered in this role of the
father oonfessor. It is too great temptation
20 impose on them. Even Protestant pastors
know how delicate is such apastoral relation
ship II women will have confessors, let
them ask for a woman as aSso tate pastor
Religion itself suffers from this sort
q, feminine influence. The priest has
had his day, but does not
know it He stands in the way of the
Christ that is TO be, as his Jewish ancestor
stood In tue way OF Jesus Is the reign Of
woman to perpetuate this dangerl Surely
not since in winning her throne woman is TO
win her true self. The coming woman will
dismiss her confeSsor, and will find her
priest within her own soul. An emancipa-
ted and educated womanhood will pronounce
tho deliverance OF ecclesiasticism"
The Saviour Present with His People.
AT the New Jerusalem Church, in East
1hirty-hfth street, the Rev, S. s. Seward
preached on The Capture Of All, as related
IN the eighth chapter OF the book Of Joshua.
After stating that the taking possession Of
the promised land represented the entrance
OF the spiritual man upon the enjoyment OF
ms inheritance OF peace and joy in the Lord,
the preacher showed that though this was
nj ul,s